Today in History

Today is Tuesday, July 23, the 204th day of 2013. There are 161 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight:

On July 23, 1983, an Air Canada Boeing 767 ran out of fuel while flying from Montreal to Edmonton; the pilots were able to glide the jetliner to a safe emergency landing in Gimli, Manitoba. The near-disaster occurred because the fuel had been erroneously measured in pounds instead of kilograms at a time when Canada was converting to the metric system.

On this date:

In 1885, Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, died in Mount McGregor, N.Y., at age 63.

In 1886, a legend was born as Steve Brodie claimed to have made a daredevil plunge from the Brooklyn Bridge into New York’s East River. However, there are doubts about whether the dive actually took place.

In 1888, author Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago.

In 1914, Austria-Hungary issued a list of demands to Serbia following the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serb assassin; the dispute led to World War I.

In 1945, French Marshal Henri Petain, who had headed the Vichy government during World War II, went on trial, charged with treason. He was convicted and condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted.

In 1951, Petain died in prison.

In 1952, Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser launched a successful coup against King Farouk I.

In 1967, a week of deadly race-related rioting that claimed 43 lives erupted in Detroit.

In 1977, a jury in Washington, D.C., convicted 12 Hanafi Muslims of charges stemming from the hostage siege at three buildings the previous March.

In 1986, Britain’s Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in London. The couple divorced in 1996.

In 1997, the search for Andrew Cunanan, the suspected killer of designer Gianni Versace and others, ended as police found his body on a houseboat in Miami Beach, an apparent suicide.

In 2011, singer Amy Winehouse, 27, was found dead in her London home from accidental alcohol poisoning.

Ten years ago: A new audiotape purported to be from toppled dictator Saddam Hussein called on Iraqis to resist the U.S. occupation. Massachusetts’ attorney general issued a report saying clergy members and others in the Boston Archdiocese probably had sexually abused more than 1,000 people over a period of six decades. New York City Councilman James Davis was shot to death by political rival Othniel Askew at City Hall; a police officer shot and killed Askew.

Five years ago: Hurricane Dolly slammed into the South Texas coast with punishing rain and winds of 100 mph. Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama toured Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, laying a wreath in memory of the 6 million Jews who died. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met North Korea’s top diplomat, Pak Ui Chun, in Singapore, ending a four-year hiatus in cabinet-level contacts between the two countries.

One year ago: His hair dyed a shocking comic-book shade of orange-red, James Holmes, the former doctoral student accused of killing 12 moviegoers at a showing of the new Batman movie in Aurora, Colo., appeared in court for the first time. Penn State’s football program was all but leveled by penalties for its handling of the allegations against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky as the NCAA imposed an unprecedented $60 million fine, a four-year ban from postseason play and a cut in the number of football scholarships it could award. Sally Ride, 61, the first American woman in space, died in La Jolla, Calif. Oscar-winning screenwriter Frank Pierson (“Dog Day Afternoon”; “Cool Hand Luke”) died in Los Angeles at age 87.